All I wanted to do was Paint the Rear Cross Member!

TheQ said:

Fabulous work Dan, not being a welder I went the new chassis route for a lot less rust than you had, I shall watch the rest of the rebuild with interest.
I'm also another ex part timer of hill between two fords, 1971-75 when my father was posted there, although the council sent me to school in Inverness to get my SCEs so I didn't learn the Gaelic unlike my brother who went to Balivanich primary. And then again in 1983 -85, when some comedian in the RAF sent me there to work on the radar ( the old one on the airfield) no I didn't apply for it!
The Q

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Thank you Yeah I was meant to be saving for a galvanised chassis but after 12 months I had saved very little, so I thought if I had done a but of welding each weekend or so for those 12 months it would have been fixed by then!

Would have been interesting to see it in those days. Do you remember a yellow house on top of the hill in Balivanich?

Sorry I don't but my memory isn't the best in the world, if you are meaning the hill between the married quarter and the air field inland of the road I remember a large pebble dash house there.
TheQ
The was also a bungalow I think between the road and the sea, near there.
Sorry I must go now I've work at six tomorrow morning I'll check this thread tomorrow!

TheQ said:

Sorry I don't but my memory isn't the best in the world, if you are meaning the hill between the married quarter and the air field inland of the road I remember a large pebble dash house there.
TheQ

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Don't worry, I've now forgotten what I was going to say about it ound:

Just seeing this welding, proof that a few hundred pounds spent on a welder is a much better investment than a 1.5K galv chassis. And of course the skill, which I don't yet have. :lol:

Amazing thread mate. I am watching with interests. heck all that welding even got me motivated to go weld my resonator on.

This thread inspired me to go try and weld up my disco today around the arches...

An hour in and after just discovering more and more rust and filler i give up... haha

Why do people have to bodge landys so much

Southernlandy said:

Just seeing this welding, proof that a few hundred pounds spent on a welder is a much better investment than a 1.5K galv chassis. And of course the skill, which I don't yet have. :lol:

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rappy1 said:

Amazing thread mate. I am watching with interests. heck all that welding even got me motivated to go weld my resonator on.

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IamRobbie said:

This thread inspired me to go try and weld up my disco today around the arches...

An hour in and after just discovering more and more rust and filler i give up... haha

Why do people have to bodge landys so much

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Thanks for the comments guys! Just go weld stuff, the more you do the better it gets and you sometimes set stuff on fire which is nice

IamRobbie said:

Why do people have to bodge landys so much

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Because it is easier to bodge it and sell it on than repair it properly, proper repairs take time, patience, skill and a bit of money to be spent.

I have been busy for over a year undoing other peoples bodges and very poor welded repairs, just take pride in it and think a lot about what you are doing and want to achieve before you even go out and attack it.

Great work so far Dan, any more updates for us?

dieseldog69 said:

Because it is easier to bodge it and sell it on than repair it properly, proper repairs take time, patience, skill and a bit of money to be spent.

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Very true. I think a lot of it is down to the customer though, they want their vehicle fixed for the cheapest price possible and this is effectively supporting people who bodge things. I really think people should learn about what is involved in fixing a vehicle properly and the consequences of doing a bodge repair to really appreciate why a proper job is worth the price tag.

dieseldog69 said:

Great work so far Dan, any more updates for us?

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Now that you mention it....

Ok so don't have a picture of them bits I painted up, but I'm sure you can imagine what they'd look like :lol:

I was going to start on the front axle next but since I now had the parts I decided to finish up the rear axle and suspension.

Upper link arms going in



All bolted up



Wasn't going to use these springs but they will do for now to get it mobile. Not at all proud in anyway of the paint job, spent literally 2 minutes with a wire brush on all 4 springs then used up some aerosol tins of paint that have been sitting on the shelf for about 10 years. Not expecting it to last and it's rough as #### but better than rust.... just about.



Some DIY rear spring retainers. 30mm x 6mm flat bar 150mm long with 12mm holes 40mm in from each end (giving a 70mm centre) on the centre line..... or not in my case! That's what happens when you don't zero the slide stock before you use the machines!



Who can tell me what this is going to be used for?



Hopefully get some more done this week!

Who can tell me what this is going to be used for?

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Prodding the mrs when your hungry?

IamRobbie said:

Prodding the mrs when your hungry?

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:lol:

Not quite

Ok so a bit more done this week....

Spring retainers cleaned of dirt/oil/cutting fluid etc



Then a coat of etch and finished in silver wheel paint since "it was on the self".



Some parts ready to fit.



Because of the "different" rear chassis setup I have the bump stops wont fit as normal:



A wee bend to one of the tabs sorts that.



This where this bit of 1" diameter round bar comes in.



4 slices cut at 17mm




Centre dab



6.8mm hole drilled



M8 x 1.25 thread tapped



Which gives me some mounting bosses for the bump stops



Welded in place



Lick of paint on the bare metal and the other parts can be fitted



Got some 16" modulars and crappy AT tyres I took off the Discovery, banged the two together and this gives me some wheels to sit it on and move about for now.



Rear hubs back on, although not cleaned and painted yet as I am going to be replacing the stub axles along with new bearings and brake discs, so the hubs will get stripped and painted when I come to fit the new parts.



As it stands so far

slowly but surely dude, getting there

What did you cut the bar with? A hacksaw or something?

Yeah has been very slow at times, picked up recently but as always something else suffers so probably won't me much happening to it over the next few weeks.

Bar was cut with grinder... with not much disc on it :lol:

The rear crossmember looks about 40mm higher than standard, are you modifying the rear tub?
I did that once with a 90 running in a standard class but as a little cheat to gain clearance

it just looks so sexy already!!!! The bits your painting are you rubbing down then using a primer before paining or are you just rubbing down then painting?

pressbrake said:

The rear crossmember looks about 40mm higher than standard, are you modifying the rear tub?
I did that once with a 90 running in a standard class but as a little cheat to gain clearance

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It should be in standard position, I mocked it up by clamping a frame to the remaining fixing points and using that as a guide. Could well be wrong though, that's how it goes, bit more grinding and welding might be needed yet :lol:

IamRobbie said:

it just looks so sexy already!!!! The bits your painting are you rubbing down then using a primer before paining or are you just rubbing down then painting?

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haha thanks

It depends really, nearly everything has had rust removed, wire brush on grinder, then rust converter, then chassis paint. The rust converter I use can be used as a surface prep, and also the chassis paint can be applied to bare metal so no need for a primer there in this situation.

The springs I'm most likely going to change so I just waggled a wire brush at them for a few minutes and slapped on some yellow paint I had sitting on the shelf.

The likes of the spring retainers, I used etch as the mill scale was still on and I was too lazy to remove it, will probably sort that out when I change the springs.

What rust converter are you using and what chassis paint? thats something i need to do to my whole chassis this year before then waxoyling it